The Wall Street Journal Asia, based in Hong Kong, has been fined £10,700 by the Singapore high court for contempt of court for publishing two editorials and a letter by an opposition leader questioning the country's judicial system. The attorney general said the editorials and letter, published in June and July this year, "impugned the integrity, impartiality and independence of the Singapore judiciary." (Via Wall Street Journal)

Australian television journalist Peter Lloyd faces up to 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane after being arrested in Singapore of charges of possessing approximately 0.04 ounces of methamphetamine and selling the drug. Lloyd, the south Asia correspondent for Australia's public broadcaster, ABC, was on leave when he was detained. ABC news director John Cameron has flown to Singapore to offer assistance to Lloyd. (Sources: Google/AP/The Australian)

Singapore has banned the sale and distribution of the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine after it refused to comply with media regulations. "It is a privilege and not a right for foreign newspapers to circulate in Singapore", said a spokesman for the ministry of information, communications and the arts. Approval for the Hong Kong-based magazine to be circulated in the city-state was withdrawn because it failed to appoint a legal representative and pay a £67,000 "security bond". These conditions have also been placed on four other foreign publications: Time, Newsweek, the Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune. The FEER, published by Dow Jones, has 1,000 subscribers in Singapore. They face legal action if they continue to receive the magazine.

The Far Eastern Economic Review has become the latest foreign publication to be targeted by the Singapore authorities. It has been given until 11 September to comply with an Act which demands that it must have a legal representative in the country and pay a deposit of £67,500. Four other publications - the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, Time and Newsweek - have also been ordered to do the same when their licences come up for renewal. A Singapore government spokesman says its position is that "it is a privilege, and not a right, for foreign newspapers to circulate in Singapore". Reporters Without Borders, the press watchdog, says that the rules are really a form of censorship. Singapore is ranked 140th out of 167 countries in RWB's 2005 worldwide press freedom index. (Via Reporters sans frontières - ASIA)

A free newspaper in Singapore, Today, has suspended a popular column by a blogger known as mr brown following official criticism of a piece which attacked government economic policies. Today's editor, Mano Sabnani, said it was an editorial decision not to go on publishing the columnist, whose real name is Lee Kin Mun. But the paper gave space to the government to reply at length, and its real feelings emerged in a statement by a spokeswoman for the minister of information. She said mr brown was guilty of distorting the truth and added ominously: "It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government." (Via AsiaMedia Media News Daily)